Question

Photo of Nathan Ramirez

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Zebra printer is losing its configuration abruptly and sporadically

2

We use the Zebra ZD420 and ZD421 both ZPL 203DPI and 300DPI. I'm not sure if its something in rock or if its something in the zebra printer but for some reason I cant seem to find the underlying issue. So what happens is randomly the configuration for the printer is lost. It sometimes loses the network config but most of the time it loses its printing config (cutter, printing speed, width and length of the label, etc...). I set all this up in the Zebra Setup Utilities windows app. There is a certain configuration we use and I'll attach it the PDF here (Zebra_Printer_Reset.docx). What's even more strange is that it happens to random printers. Some never give problems and others only give one problem and after they're fixed they never give problems again. Others give me consistent problems and they print fine one Sunday and after a couple prints it loses its configuration and doesn't print aligned or doesn't use the cutter. I'm not sure if the configuration is set up correctly or if its something in the rock check in side that I am not looking at. I tried installing the drivers via the "Install new Printer" in the setup utilities and then update the drivers but if there is something I am doing wrong then I would love to know. Any help would be greatly appreciated and any additional information needed to assist, I would be more than happy to provide it!

  • Photo of Lee Peterson

    1

    Hi Nathan! Almost all of the print settings are configured in the check-in labels. In the core "Child Label (Icon)", the second through seventh lines are setting the printer settings. For example, ^MTD sets MediaType Direct (as in thermal direct, not thermal transfer). ^PR6,6 sets the Print Rate to 6 inches/second. ^PW812 tells the printer that the labels are 812 dots wide. ^LL0406 doesn't do anything (it sets the editor in Rock, though) -- the Label Length is set by the gap between labels.

    These settings aren't persisted, so they're lost when you power cycle the printer. But they're rewritten every time a label prints. In effect, the driver settings don't do anything.

    ^XA~TA000~JSN^LT0^MNW^MTD^PON^PMN^LH0,0^JMA^PR6,6~SD24^LRN^CI28^XZ
    ^XA
    ^MMT
    ^PW812
    ^LL0406
    ^LS0

    If you select Enable Label Cutting in the check-in apps it will override the ^MMT (Tear-off Mode) setting in the label, and cut in a batch.

    This doesn't explain your loss of network settings, obviously. That sounds like a printer problem. I don't remember if there's a battery that powers keep-alive memory -- there might be.

    Hopefully this will help!

  • Photo of Ben Murphy

    0

    Hi Nathan! I'm sorry that you're having problems with your printers, I know that can be frustrating. It's be great to know how you have these printers connected to your network and / or Rock. Hardwired is the most reliable, then wi-fi, with bluetooth bringing up the rear of that race.

    You'll get immediate feedback and troubleshooting if you join the entire Rock community over in chat, there is even a Check-in channel for these types of topics!